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Somewhere in the north-eastern Spanish city of Borja, an elderly woman is probably praying that the road to hell is not really paved with good intentions.

There can be little doubt that the woman, identified only as an octogenarian local, was just trying to help when she noticed that the face of the scourged Christ on the wall of a small church in the city was looking a bit faded, and decided to freshen it up a bit.

Sadly for her – and Elías García Martínez, the 19th-century artist who painted the mural – her brush skills were not quite up to the job.

The unnamed amateur has transformed what was once a pleasant, if unremarkable, Ecce Homo into something that more closely resembles a bloated hedgehog than the image of Jesus before Pilate.

The press have dubbed her efforts "the worst restoration in history" and "a botched job", and the Borja authorities fear they are right.

Some painters die penniless, their work unappreciated. So it seems only fair after her artwork attracted global attention that Cecilia Giménez make some money – even if she did make Jesus look like a very hairy monkey.

The 80-year-old Spanish parishioner became a worldwide laughing stock earlier this year after her botched restoration of a 19-century fresco of Christ with a crown of thorns became an internet sensation. Millions were reduced to tears of laughter, even as some hailed it as a masterpiece in its own right.

Crowds have since swarmed to Giménez's handiwork, paying the Sanctuary of Mercy Church in Borja, near Zaragoza, €4 (£3) each to marvel or mock. And now Giménez wants a slice of the action.

"She just wants the church to conform to the law," said Enrique Trebolle, the lawyer hired by Giménez. "If this means economic compensation she wants it to be for charitable purposes."

Trebolle said that Giménez wanted her cut of the profits to help Muscular atrophy charities because her son suffers from the condition.